You have any stats handy on him? I think he gets beat on his fastball but I'm guessing.

Just glancing over the charts from his first three starts, it appears that it is the fastball that gets hit the most. The slider looks almost unhittable and batters have had little success against the change. He barely leaves anything up in the strikezone and attacks hitters inside a lot. It looks like the only way to beat him is to get ahead in the count and let him throw something in the upper 8 inches of the strikezone.

The problem is getting ahead in the count. Out of 20.216 pitches, only 3,801 (19%) have been from behind in the count. He's the kind against which you need to open up the hitting zone a bit and be more aggressive. If you try to wait him out, you're K'd.

He has one of the best scatter diagrams of pitch locations we'll ever see.

The problem is getting ahead in the count. Out of 20.216 pitches, only 3,801 (19%) have been from behind in the count. He's the kind against which you need to open up the hitting zone a bit and be more aggressive. If you try to wait him out, you're K'd.

He has one of the best scatter diagrams of pitch locations we'll ever see.

I have been noticing that as I have looked through the graphs for him. His consistency and command of the strike zone with each pitch is quite amazing. It is no wonder he is one of the better pitchers in the league. He doesn't through his slider much, but it rarely ever is in the strikezone when he does. By the time he is throwing it, though, he already has the batters guessing.

Also, looking at the pitchFX data from Olsen's first three starts of the season, I noticed some trends.

- Olsen throws three pitches (fastball-slider-change) at a ratio of 60:20:20 respectively. He has real good life on his fastball (11 vertical, 6 horizontal) and hitters have very little chance at getting a hit off of any of his fastballs with more than 12 inches of break. Like in his first start, if the fastball is breaking between 8-10 inches then he is in for a bumpy ride.

- His change up causes him a lot of problems and it may be because as his fastball velocity has dropped over the years, the change's speed has stayed the same. In the first two starts, he had a lot of trouble keeping his two seamer down, but in his last start it was one of his most effective pitches and stayed in the bottom third of the strikezone the whole time he was on the mound.

- It doesn't take me looking at graphs to tell any of you that Olsen's main problem has been control and command of his pitches. He isn't going to be a power pitcher like he was at the beginning of his career, so locating the pitches is key for him. His walk rate and hit rate are up, indicating (along with the graphs) that he is leaving the balls up at a much higher rate than any other time in his career.

- It should also be noted, though, that Olsen has a BABIP of .345 that would indicate to me he has been hurt by the defense as well as a fair amount of bad luck. His BABIP for his career has mostly hovered around .280-.300, so I would expect for him to do more like his last outing more often than his first two.

The problem is getting ahead in the count. Out of 20.216 pitches, only 3,801 (19%) have been from behind in the count. He's the kind against which you need to open up the hitting zone a bit and be more aggressive. If you try to wait him out, you're K'd.

He has one of the best scatter diagrams of pitch locations we'll ever see.

That's very true. Also, he uses that devastating change-up more with two strikes, so you really don't want to get to that point in the count. You can almost forget about waiting for a mistake up high, as well.

That's very true. Also, he uses that devastating change-up more with two strikes, so you really don't want to get to that point in the count. You can almost forget about waiting for a mistake up high, as well.

That's very true. Also, he uses that devastating change-up more with two strikes, so you really don't want to get to that point in the count. You can almost forget about waiting for a mistake up high, as well.

yeah, I remember that game. Santana took the loss that day despite being amazing.

You mean the 7 IP with 3 H, 1 BB, 13 K with one of the H being a bunt single and that outside that inning detailed above only one batter would have even reached 2b? I'd rather forget that part. But, the Nats have a better hitting coach than the Fish.